The South Korean-owned firm this month sent 300 tonnes of rice to United Arab Emirates buyers, and planned to add Russia to its list of destinations next year, KOGID Cambodia sales and marketing manager Seng Sokhom said.

Increased demand from international markets had led to shipments to a wider array of markets such as the UAE, he said.

KOGID Cambodia also aimed to increase its overall agricultural exports, company officials said.

“So we will expand our production here and export rice, corn, cassava and beans to world markets.”

Seng Sokhom said KOGID Cambodia planned to boost its rice exports to 50,000 tonnes by 2015, compared with 5,000 tonnes over the next year.

Cambodia’s rice exporters are also increasingly taking advantage of duty-free exports to the European Union. The value of rice exports to Europe increased 216 per cent in the first five months of 2011.

Rice shipments to the EU reached US$29.4 million for the period, up from $9.3 million the year before.

“We hope shipments will continue to increase, because many exporters are interested in this European demand,” Kong Putheara, director of the Commerce Ministry’s Department for Statistics and Information, said.